Publisher's Synopsis
Today's South is a melange of contrasting images. In this exhibition catalog forty-eight artists who currently live in or were born in the South have captured the essence of their region. All the photographs featured in this handsome volume were taken within the past ten years and therefore present a recent view of the modern South.
Featured is the work of Shelby Lee Adams, Richard Albertine, Tim Buchman, Syndey Byrd, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Maude Schuyler Clay, William Christenberry, Chip Cooper, Birney Imes, Tom Jenkins, A. J. Meek, Curt Richter, Melissa Springer, Wendy Watriss/Fred Baldwin, Fannie Tapper, and other notable artists.
The juried selection was made by Ellen Dougan, curator of photography at the High Museum of Art; Alex Harris, professor of documentary studies at Duke University and editor of DoubleTake magazine; and Philip Morris, editor-at-large of Southern Progress Corporation. The technical range of the photographic work is large, including black-and-white, color, toned, collage, and computer-generated images. The subject matter is diverse, including the southern fascination with rituals, gentility, decay, belles, and remnants of the past. Juxtaposed are images of splendor, tackiness, tradition, and beauty-conveying all together the rich and varied culture of the American South.
The text for this volume has been drawn from passages of southern literature and statements from the artists themselves.
The exhibition is scheduled at the Birmingham Museum of Art from October 20 to December 29, 1996, and at the Columbia (South Carolina) Museum of Art from January 24 to April 6, 1997.
At the Birmingham Museum of Art Susan Sipple Elliott is Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and John E. Schloder is the former Director.
